The present invention generally relates to methods and tools relating to treating pain, and particularly to reducing or eliminating a diffuse pain that is attributable to intraosseous pressure within a bone.
Individuals with medical conditions often suffer from pain. In many cases, the etiology of the pain is not clear. A common and well understood pain category is bone pain resulting from a variety of diseases such as trauma, trophic changes, and neoplasms. However, many chronic bone pain problems do not have clearly identifiable structural changes and hence are difficult to explain. Currently, such pain, without a readily attributable cause, is judged to be neuropathic in nature. In many such cases, medication treatment is heavily used if the nervous system is judged responsible and no peripheral causes are obvious. Further, surgical or interventional treatments are performed if obvious anatomical changes are found.
A large number of chronic pain conditions have possible explanation in subtle changes within the bones themselves. A “bone-pain generator” may be located in various bones, particularly the skull, pelvis, ribs, and vertebra, as well as facial and long bones. Increase in intraosseous pressure (i.e., pressure within a bone) due to chronic mechanical or metabolic influences can cause vague and diffuse pain symptoms that are not amenable to conventional surgical, interventional, or medication treatments. In the context of this disclosure, “diffuse pain” means pain whose source cannot be precisely pinpointed and is sensed over a general area, for example, overlying a locality where bone edema is present.
Thus there exists an unmet need for methods and tools that can mitigate bone pain, especially pain that is not amenable to hitherto known surgical, interventional or medication treatments due to being generated by a process that may be difficult to identify.